I think that the subject
of "Christmas around the world," is a fun and interesting way to introduce
students to different cultures. With the help of a wide range of literature,
the students have the opportunity to learn about how cultures around the
world celebrate Christmas differently, and also how some Christmas traditions
may be the same. Through learning about how different countries celebrate
Christmas, the students may also find out that some of the unique ways that
their families celebrate Christmas originated in another country.

Josefina and her family are having a difficult Christmas, because
it is their first after Josefina’s mother passed away.Through the town’s grand celebration that the family prepares for,
the reader is introduced to many Mexican traditions.The author incorporates a variety of Spanish words throughout the
story, and a glossary is provided in the back of the book.This book provides a fun and easy read to help the reader get acquainted
with the Spanish culture through the memorable character, Josefina.However, this book does have a gender bias in the
sense that it is geared towards girls, and would be seen negatively if a
boy read the book.

Chinese-American

Yep, L. (2000) Dream Soul. New
York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Joan Lee and her family experience their first American Christmas
in West Virginia.Joan wants to be able to fit into the American culture,
especially join in the Christmas celebrations.Joan’s
parents are reluctant to allow their children immerse themselves in American
culture, but her parents use being able to participate in Christmas activities
as an incentive for their children to be on their best behavior.Joan embraces her Chinese heritage and new interest
in the American ways during a family crisis, when her father becomes very
ill.This book is a captivating story that provides
unique examples of how Eastern and Western cultures can contrast, but also
blend well together when one is tolerant and respectful of both cultures.I think that this book is effective in showing how
one from another culture tries to adapt to another culture, and provides
an important lesson of tolerance and accepting one’s own heritage.

Picture Books

This book is the Irish version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.Within the poem are Gaelic words, and the translations
are provided.There are also words that are particular
to the Irish culture, but no English translations are provided, and so the
poem is hard to follow at times.However, each
page is colorfully illustrated, depicting what is occurring in each stanza
of the poem.The pictures also reveal many aspects
of the Irish culture, particularly pertaining to Christmas traditions.This book could provide a great activity of students
creating their own “Night Before Christmas” poems, including
elements from their own cultures and family traditions.

This book contains a collection of Christmas songs from Latin
America that tell about some tradition that is celebrated at
Christmas time.Each song is presented in Spanish
and also the English translation is provided.The
pictures on each page illustrate the tradition that the song is describing.Along with the song, there is a brief description
at the bottom of each page telling what the picture is about.This book is excellent to teach students about Spanish
culture and how Christmas is celebrated in Latin America,
since the pictures, the songs, and the informational descriptions are all
very engaging.I think that students would enjoy
learning how to sing a Christmas song in Spanish.

Various

De Paola, T. (1980) The
Family Christmas Tree Book. New York:
Holiday House.

Through the story of an American family putting of their Christmas
tree, the reader learns about how Christmas trees are celebrated in other
countries.Multiple stories of how the Christmas
tree was created are told by the parents of the family, and the different
types of Christmas trees are depicted through colorful illustrations.This book is an easy to read fictional story that
provides bits of interesting facts about Christmas trees from around the world.This book would be interesting for students to see
how Christmas trees differ around the world, and it is also a cute story
to read about a family enjoying their American Christmas tree.

The story in this book does not come from a specific country or culture,
but it does tell about a unique snow carving carnival that a small mountain
village has each Christmas.A mysterious man,
Nicholi, who has an astonishing resemblance to Santa Claus, creates the most
beautiful snow sculpture of a sleigh and reindeer.Nicholi
takes the village children on a magical ride in his snow sculpture, and then
disappears along with the sculpture.This story
is enchanting and unique, and would show the students a unique way to celebrate
Christmas through a snow sculpting contest.

Germany

Hoffman, E. (1999).
The Nutcracker. New York:
DK Publishing, Inc.

This book tells the classic story of Marie, the nutcracker, and how
the nutcracker comes to life, traveling to magical places with Marie.On each page are detailed and colored drawings, along
with photographs of historical objects that help explain certain aspects
of the story.This particular version of The Nutcracker would help students familiarize themselves with
a variety of different aspects from German culture because of the interesting
information that the photographs and descriptions provide.The version found in the book tells a slightly different story than
students may be familiar with from the ballet.

This book depicts Christmas celebrated by a Spanish family.In the story, a little girl, Maria, and her mother
enjoy making tamales for the Christmas feast.In
the spirit of Christmas, Maria’s mother allows her to wear perfume and lipstick,
and Maria also wishes that she could wear her mother’s beautiful, diamond
ring.When Mara’s mother sets the ring down while
making the tamales, she is tempted to put it on, and it becomes lost while
she makes the tamales with her mother.This book
would be helpful to introduce students to ethnic foods that families from
other cultures make for Christmas while teaching them a lesson about telling
the truth and responsibility.

This book explores the real man, St. Nicholas, behind today’s myth
of Santa Claus.St. Nicholas was a bishop, and
used his position to help many people, and he was said to have also performed
miracles.The book provides detailed information
about St. Nicholas’s life from birth to death, along with historical pictures
of St. Nicholas.This book would only be appropriate
for students who no longer believe in Santa Claus, because it spells out
that Santa Claus does not really exist in the sense that children picture
him.This background information on the real
Santa Claus would help students realize where the myth of Santa Claus came
from, and what St. Nicholas did to become known as such a great man.This book could also help students realize that the
Christmas spirit is in helping others, and being kind, not just through giving
gifts.

This book features Santa Clauses from a variety of countries, and
how he is viewed and celebrated differently in each country.In this book, Santa Claus is depicted from the countries:
the Netherlands,
France, England,
Germany, Russia,
Korea, and
even more.A brief description of how the tale
of Santa Claus began is also included.Illustrations
are provided for each Santa Claus so that the reader is able to visualize
what Santa Claus from a particular country would look like.This book would be very effective in teaching students
that even though people from around the world are different, we also have
a lot in common.Students would be interested
to see that there is not only one way to view Santa Claus, and how other
countries celebrate Santa Claus “coming to town.”

Folktales(names
given are translator, illustrator and editor)

Mexico-Aztec

Bi

erhorst, J. (1984). Spirit
Child: A Story of the Nativity. New York:
William Morrow and Company.

`This book provides an Aztec version of the Christmas story-Jesus’
birth.The tale combines stories from the Bible,
medieval legends and traditional Aztec lore.The
illustrations in the book depict persons of dark skin and black hair, representing
those from the Spanish culture.In the story,
a few aspects of the traditional tale are altered, but it mainly follows
the same chain of events.It is important to
note that this is a religious tale, and should be used with discretion, especially
in public schools.However, I think that it would
be interesting for students to read the Christmas story as told from a different
culture, and students from the culture would appreciate the tale.

Denmark

DePaola,
T. (1979). The Cat on the Dovrefell a Christmas Tale. New
York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

This folktale tells a story about Halvor and his great white bear.On their journey to see the King of Denmark, Halvor
and his polar bear seek shelter at a home where trolls expect a feast every
Christmas Eve.The trolls are scared by the great
white bear, and never bother the family again.This
would be an excellent book to introduce students to folktales with because
the story is interesting and easy to understand.The
students are also exposed to a Christmas story from another country as well.

This
folktale tells a story about a little girl who is left at family’s doorstep
by a caravan.The family takes in the little
girl whom they name Oona, and raise her as their own child, but when Oona
grew up no one would marry her because she was from a gypsy family.Despite disappointment and rejection, Oona had a
big heart, and was very charitable during the famine.Near death from hunger, Oona was encountered by The Gentle People
(fairies), and they built her a terrific cabin supplied with food for Oona
to feed herself and the townspeople with.This
folktale was difficult to read, but would be worth it for the teacher to
provide a simplified version for the students.The
folktale could also be done as a read aloud, and the teacher could explain
the story as she reads.Many Gaelic words are
incorporated in the story, and is rich with the Irish culture.

In this book, there is a collection of countries with a descriptive
page on how that country celebrates Christmas.The
countries are listed in alphabetical order beginning with Australia
and ending with the United States,
specifically Alaska.For each country, there is one page of easy to read
information about the country’s celebrations, and then a colorful picture
depicting people from that country celebrating Christmas.In the back of the book, there are instructions on how to make a Christmas
craft from a variety of countries.This book
is very informative and interesting to read.The
book would be very useful for students to get an overview of how different
countries celebrate Christmas.Even though the
book is an informational book, it is fun to read, and the activities would
be fun to do with a class.

Various

Sechrist, E. (1998). Christmas Everywhere. Detroit:
Omnigraphics.

This book provides a collection of Christmas celebrations from every
region of the world.The descriptions of each
Christmas celebration are very detailed, yet easy to read and follow for younger
readers.The book is mainly informational, but
also includes a few short stories, poems and songs.This book is a good resource for students to learn many things about
Christmas celebrations in different countries.

Professional Resource Links

Have you ever wondered how people in Iceland celebrate Christmas? Click
here---> World View

Would you like to know which countries celebrate Christmas during summer?
Click here ---> North
Pole

Need some Christmas around the world
lesson plan ideas? Click here ---> Education
World